Thursday 30 August 2007
Some 6,315 foreign students have registered for Dutch universities and colleges this summer, up by 1,000 from the preceding year, according to figures from the immigration service IND. The increase is largely because of less stringent immigration policy for students, said the IND.
Monday 20 August 2007
Tarot card readers, astrologers and spiritually-based ‘personal development programmes’ are being given government funding as part of efforts to get people back to work, the Volkskrant reports on Monday.
The paper says more than 2,000 companies are currently operating on the market to boost people’s employability.
‘It is a new market, anyone can join in,’ says Ryanne Dijkstra, of Blik op Werk, which is developing a quality standard for reintegration companies.
Christian and Socialist MPs have called for an end to the subsidising of some programmes. ‘Such woolly projects do not help in finding a job,’ Christian Democrat MP Eddy van Hijum told the paper.
However, career coach Erica Groenendijk, who uses tarot cards, said the government should let the market do its work. Companies which are not successful will have to close down, she pointed out.
Since 2004, the jobless and people on incapacity benefit can get up to €5,000 from the state to pay for courses to help them find work. Last year, some 42,500 people were following such reintegration projects, the paper said.
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2007/08/state_funds_tarot_card_reading.phpWhat do you think about that? Interesting approach to solving joblessness, maybe. I will have to look into this further. But nevertheless it does speak to the different approaches that the Dutch take in ensuring that all of their citizens have some sort of social support.
Other then that I have made it through the first week of the induction program. Was very good to meet other international students from all over the world.
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